300 students have had US visas revoked and could face deportation: Report

As part of Donald Trump's larger immigration crackdown, visas of hundreds of international students have been revoked. A report by CNN has confirmed that more than 340 students, faculty and researchers' visas have been revoked this year alone from universities and colleges from across the country. 

Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, said that under his direction the State Department revoked more than 300 visas, mostly those on a student visa. 

Criminal convictions have always put students at risk of losing their statuses, but traffic infractions and participation in political actions have rarely been cited as grounds. According to the publication, immigration attorneys have said that minor offences such as year-old misdemeanour are being cited as reasons for deportation and revocation of visas. 

Jeff Joseph, president-elect of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said, “All of these tools that exist in the (immigration) statute have been used before, but they use them in a way that causes mass hysteria, chaos and panic with the hope that students won’t get proper legal advice and they’ll just, through attrition, leave the country. 

The publication has detailed the woes of a number of students from different universities facing the threat of deportation. 

Studying in the US since 2016, Dartmouth graduate researcher from China. Xiaotian Liu has filed a lawsuit in court asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent the government from deporting him. His lawyer said that the State Department has the right to revoke Liu's F-1 student visa, but ICE does not have the right to force him to leave the country immediately, especially when he has committed no crime or participated in any protest. He has also not been given any explanation for the revocation of his visa. 

Without a visa, an international student loses legal protection, and must leave the United States or risk being detained and placed in deportation proceedings. Out of fear of being detained, many choose to leave the country. 

Turkish citizen and University of Minnesota student, Doğukan Günaydin was detained in March after his visa was revoked for a prior drunk driving infraction, the publication reported. 

Another student, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, Kseniia Petrova at the time of writing this report, sits in an immigration cell because she failed to declare “non-hazardous” frog embryos she was carrying with her on her return to the US from France, her lawyer said as per the report. 

Her attorney said the State Department's move was “a punishment grossly disproportionate to the situation.”

According to the report, immigration attorneys have said that in several instances, the government refused to provide details of the decisions to revoke visas unless strong-armed to do so in court. 

Along with students, universities too have not been informed about the visa status of those studying in their institution. After checking a government database, institutes have learnt that the visas of their students have been revoked without explanation. 

In some cases students have had their visas revoked with no further action been taken, some have been detained by authorities to be detained and some are suggested to "self-deport".

Under the Biden administration, the Customs and Border Protection had an online application, CBP One which was used to schedule the arrival of immigrants. Now it has been changed to CBP Home where people can inform the government that they will leave the US voluntarily. 

The fear of deportation is compounded by a financial burden. In a social media post, Homeland Security stated that they could fine an immigrant $998 per day for remaining in the country after receiving "a final order of removal".